DERBY DELIRIUM
Devlin slams Accies hecklers after Moult fires Motherwell above rivals
HAMILTON captain Mikey Devlin hit out at the home fans who turned against him and the team at the end of a bruising Lanarkshire derby loss at the Superseal Stadium.
A 66th-minute goal from Louis Moult left Accies three points behind Motherwell in 11th place in the Premiership and four clear of bottom club Inverness Caledonian Thistle, still in danger of automatic relegation.
Fans chanted for the head of boss Martin Canning towards the end of the match with Devlin, right, becoming involved in an ugly spat with one supporter at the final whistle, having to be held back by a steward and taken down the tunnel.
It’s understood Devlin’s father also became involved, with his mother and sister being escorted away by club staff. ‘It’s difficult,’ said Devlin. ‘It’s difficult for my family sitting in amongst that as well. ‘As frustrated as the fans are, they need to understand that we’re giving everything we possibly can on the pitch. ‘We don’t want to be losing. We don’t want to lose a derby. It means as much to us as it does to anyone else. It’s our livelihoods. If we get relegated, it affects us too. ‘Your head’s all over the place emotionally after a game, but I don’t think
we deserved some of the stuff we got coming off the pitch.
‘My dad’s there with my mum. My sister had travelled up from London.
‘She doesn’t get to many games and she’s hearing that abuse directed at her brother. That’s not good enough.
‘I’m sorry, but I give everything I can for this club, day to day and week to week.
‘I don’t deserve that and the other players don’t deserve it.
‘I’m not going to accept that as the captain of this club.
‘I understand fans are frustrated, but it’s not good enough.
‘I understand they’re not happy being down near the bottom of the league for the vast majority of the season, but we need their support at this time.
‘All I can ask is that they stay behind the team and manager.
‘If we didn’t fight and compete, I can understand it, but I thought we fought and gave all we could.’
Canning admits the abuse is nothing new.
‘It’s not nice, but it’s happened throughout the course of the season at different moments and it happened last season too and the one before,’ he said.
‘You can see it’s not a lack of effort that’s costing us. I thought we were the better team and their goalie made one fantastic save, but games are turned on small things and we didn’t do our job at a set-piece.
‘I don’t think the fans are getting shortchanged. We need them to stay behind us and give us the best backing they can.’
Devlin insists Hamilton must win their remaining matches against Ross County and Dundee — but admits they need to find a more street-smart approach pretty quickly.
‘We knew there wasn’t